Present Members and Visitors of the McMahon Lab (2013-2015)

Adeline Colussi from Switzerland
Joined group as a PhD student in Jan 2014 on an LMB scholarship. Working on membrane curvature sensing.

Omer Stern from Tel Aviv
Postdoc working on Dengue proteins involved in ER shaping.

Leonardo Almeida-Souza from Brazil
Joined group in Nov 2012 on an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship. Previously worked on peripheral neuropathies at VIB, Antwerp.

Yvonne Vallis
Research Assistant with the lab since its beginnings, so can reveal all our secrets.
Coordinator of Imagining The Brain

Nushan Gunawardana, Neurologist,
joined lab April 2013. Working on molecular basis of Parkinson's disease, in a joint project with Dr. Roger Barker.

Harvey McMahon
from Clones, Ireland
Lab Head 1995-present (current CV) (old)
the boys become honorary lab members

Wai-Ching Hon from Canada
Joined group in July 2011
Crystallographer

Vladan Martinovic from Serbia
joined group in Oct 2011
LMB PhD Scholarship, working on Clathrin-mediated endocytosis

Rohit Mittal
Senior Research Associate, MRC

Rohit demonstrated that YopJ, a toxin of the bacterium responsible for the Black Plague, acetylates various proteins involved in signal transduction (see PNAS paper 2006). Has also shown that YopJ requires a cofactor (IP6) for its activity that is provided by eukaryotic target cells (see J Biol Chem paper 2010).

Safa Lucken-Ardjomande from Geneva
Postdoc May2008, Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow, working on clathrin-independent pathways of endocytosis.

Sven Flemming from Hamburg
Visiting PhD student 2013

Dr Tetsuya Takeda from Japan
joined the group in Feb 2013, having worked on cytokineis with Prof. David Glower, and now works on novel endocytic mechanisms. Currently group leader and Professor in Okayama University, Japan

Emma Evergren
from Sweden, worked with Oleg Shupliakov in Stockholm
Joined lab in Sept 2007 on a Swedish Research Council Fellowship and then moved to an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship. Worked on the initiaition of clathrin-mediated endocytosis (see Science paper 2010). Currently group leader and lecturer in Queen's University, Belfast

Alex Fragniere PhD student (Oct2009-2012)
Co-supervised with Roger Barker, Brain Repair Centre. Moved to the Brain Repair Centre to work on Huntingtons' and Parkinsons' disease.

Nicole Liska (PhD student Oct2008-Sept2011) from Austria. Supported initially by an LMB Cambridge European Scholarship and further by an Austrian Academy of Science Fellowship (DOCfFORTE) Jan2009-end). Working on SNARE- and synaptotagmin-dependent membrane fusion.

Emmanuel Boucrot (2008-2011)
MRC Postdoc working on membrane trafficking and mitosis. Worked on the initiation of clathrin-coated vesicle budding by the membrane curvature effector, FCHo proteins (see Science paper 2010). Worked on Epsin as a membraner fission effector (see Cell 2012), and on Endophilin as marking a novle clathrin-independent endocytic route (see Nature article 2015). Currently has is own group at University College London.

Gamze Camdere
Bilkent University, Turkey
Summer training project 2006.
Supported by the Leopard Müller Funds, MRC
PhD Student Oct2007 to Sept 2010, supported by an LMB Scholarship. Passed PhD viva on 11Feb 2011 (see celebration). Worked on Epsin as a membraner fission effector (see Cell 2012). In the summer of 2011 she joined the Koshland lab, Dept of Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley.

Michael Meinecke, PhD in biophysics from Osnabruck, Postdoc EMBO fellowship (Feb2009-Jan2010), HFSP Fellowship (Feb2010-Jan2013) working on endocytic mechanisms (see Science paper 2010). In Jan2012 he established his own group at the Georg-August-University / European Neuroscience Institute in Goettingen.

Lucy Collins (2009-2011)
A summer student and yeast-2-hybrid expert (2009). Finished Masters Dec 2011. Moved to the Brain Repair Centre to work with Roger Barker.

Sascha Martens
from Berlin, Germany
Postdoctoral visitor Sept2005-July2006.
Supported by an EMBO Fellowship Aug2006-July2008
Sascha has characterised the curvature inducing properties of synaptotagmin on membrane binding and this provides a mechanistic explanation of how synaptic vesicle fusion is regulated by calcium (see Science paper 2007). He was also invoved in finding a calcium sensor for spontaneous neurotransmitter release (see Science article 2010). He now has his own group at the Max Perutz Laboratories in Vienna. EMBO YIP award 2013

Mike (William) Henne (PhD student Oct2005-Apr2009)
our Texan
Supported by an LMB Cambridge Scholarship/Gates-Cambridge Trust Scholarship and a Trinity External Studentship. Worked on the structure and function of a new membrane interaction domain; the F-BAR domain. See structure of FCHo2 (Structure paper 2007). Worked on the function of FCHo2 in clathrin-mediated endocytosis until Dec 2009 (see Science paper 2010). Moved to Scott Emr's lab in Ithaca in Jan2010 with a postdoctoral Sam and Nancy Fleming Research Fellowship. Currently has his own group in the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, Texas.

Prof Fred Cohen (Sabbatical visitor 2008)
Professor of molecular biophysics and physiology at Rush University Chicago

Gary Doherty
from Derry, Ireland
MD PhD Jan2005-2008.
Supported for PhD by a Trinity College Studentship (IRS) Cambridge and by MRC posdoctoral funding for 2008
What I work on...
My Crystals pic1, pic2.
Discovered a clathrin-independent pathway of endocytosis (see Current Biology paper 2008). Wrote two reviews, one on membrane cytoskeletal interactions (see Ann Review ofBiophysics 2008) and one on endocytic mechanisms (see Ann Review of Biochemistry 2009).
Continued to be a 'real' doctor in The Royal Victoria, Belfast

Eva Schmid (PhD student 2003-2006)
from Linz,Austria.
Supported in year 1 by the MRC/Cambridge European Trust and Louis Jeantet Foundation. Years 2 and 3 are supported by the Austrian Academy for Sciences. Worked on Hub proteins in clathrin-mediated endocytosis and the organisation of networks (see PLOS paper 2006 and see Schmid and McMahon, Nature 2006). Received a Max Perutz prize for this work. Also received the 'Erwin Wenzl Award for Dissertations' from Austria. Moved on to do a postdoc in bioengineering & biophysics with Prof Dan Fletcher UC Berkeley as a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow.

Richard Lundmark (PostDoc 2004-2007)
from Skellefteå, Sweden
PostDoc fellowship from the Swedish Research Council. Showed that Arf proteins can induce membrane curvature in a GTP-dependent manner (see Biochemical Journal paper 2008). Discovered a clathrin-independent pathway of endocytosis (see Current Biology paper 2008). Currently Assistant Professor of Medical Biochemistry in Umeå university.

Oliver (Oli) Daumke
from Freiburg Germany
PostDoc 2004-2007
Supported by a Human Frontiers Fellowship. Worked on the structure and function of a dynamin-superfamily member EHD2 (see Daumke et al Nature, 2007). From 2007 group leader at the Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin (MDC), Berlin (now Professor).
EMBO YIP award 2010

Marijn Ford (PhD student:MRC studentship 1998-2002) from Leiden, The Netherlands Received Max Perutz prize for structure:function studies on endocytic proteins. Had a Downing College Research Fellowship (2002-2006) and was hosted in the McMahon lab. Solved the structure of epsin ENTH domain bound to PtdIns(4,5)P2 (Nature article 2002) and the structure of AP180 ANTH domain bound to InsP3 (Science 2001). His has also worked on the organisation of protein network hubs (EMBO J. 2004). Continues as a postdoc in UC Davis and then as a group leader in University of Pittsburgh.

Jenny Gallop (PhD student:MRC Pre-doctoral Fellowship 2001-2005). Crossed the BAR at 3:30pm on Wed 11May2005 (see photo)
from Bristol,UK, graduate of Oxford University.Received Max Perutz prize for distinguished research in the field of endocytosis in 2005. Moved to Marc Kirschner's Systems Biology Lab, Harvard, Boston March 2006. Jenny solved the structure of endophilin BAR domain and worked on the function of these proteins (see EMBO paper 2006)
She wrote the first major review on the subject of membrane bending domains (see Nature 2005a) and showed how endophilin was responsible for positive (and not negative) membrane curvature (see Nature 2005b). Now a group leader in the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge

Jonathan Howard FRS (Sabbatical Visitor:EMBO Short-term Fellowship)
while a Professor of Cell Genetics (Head of Department), Institute of Genetics, Cologne
Visiting fellow 2004-2005

Brian Peter (Wisconsin, USA)
PostDoctoral fellow in the McMahon Lab 2001-2004
Supported by an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship and for 1 year by the MRC. Discovered membrane curvature sensing ability of BAR domains (Science article 2004). Proceeded to show that multiple lipid interaction domains in centaurins and in sorting nexins work as coincidence detectors for lipid composition and curvature (Current Biol 2004). Also worked on different characteristics of ANTH and ENTH domains (JBC 2003)
Became a Career Scientist, Agilent Laboratories,
Palo Alto, CA, USA

Gerrit Praefcke (Weissach, Germany)
PostDoctoral fellow in the McMahon Lab 2001-2004. Supported by an EU-Marie Curie Fellowship
Showed that clathrin-mediated endocytosis should be considered as a dynamic network of protein interactions (EMBO J. 2004). Expert in affinity measurements and his analytical influence on many papers from the lab is clear from our publications (e.g. JCB 2003).We reclassified the dynamin like proteins into a superfamily and wrote an extensive review on this subject (Nature Reviews in MCB 2004)
Became a Research Group Leader,
Center for Molecular Medicine, Cologne
(Institute for Genetics)
First child June2006 (see picture of Antonia). Now at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Langen, Germany.

Ian Mills (from Liverpool, UK)
MRC Research fellowship in the McMahon Lab 2000-2003
The Cell biologist of the lab who directed many projects, not least the investigation of how ENTH domains function (Nature 2002), the search for novel ENTH domain proteins like epsinR (JCB 2003) and the analysis of BAR domain function (Science 2004)
Became a Senior Investigator,
Cancer Research UK,
Dept. Oncology, University of Cambridge, then a group leader at NCMM, Oslo, Norway, and then in 2015 became a reader in Queen's University Belfast.

Wolf Jockusch (Reutlingen, Germany)
Joint PhD student with Leon Lagnado from 2001-2004. He received a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust an LMB Cambridge Scholarship to support his studies. His goal was to show which kinetics component of endocytsis in bipolar cell terminals was dynamin-dependent and which was clathrin-dependent (Neuron 2005). Became a PostDoc in the Max-Planck-Institute for Experimental Medicine, Department of Molecular Neurobiology (headed by Nils Brose), Göttingen, Germany.

Peter Li, worked with us for the summer of 1999 while at Harvard University. Entered Neuroscience programme of University of California, San Francisco in 2002.

Matthew Higgins (PhD student with Nigel Unwin 1997-2001)
from Hathersage, Peak District, UK
Developed monolayer assay for the study of vesicle invagination (see Science 2001, TIBS 2002)
Became a PostDoc with Gebhard Schertler, LMB, Cambridge.

Mike Stowell PostDoc with Nigel Unwin 1997-2002 with funding from NSF/NATO, NIH, NSF and Agouron. Work with us on the molecular action of dynamin in endocytosis (see Nature Cell Biology 1999 and Nature paper 2001). Became a group leader in the Dept of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB), University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Patrick Wigge (Formentera Island)
First PhD student of the McMahon Lab 1995-1998 (MRC studentship)
Studied the function of amphiphysin in endocytosis (EMBO J. 1998, Current Biol 1997, MBC 1997, FebsLett 1997)
Received a MaxPerutz prize for his work
Became a PostDoc at Rockefeller, Field Research Center, New York, USA

Lene Olesen (Viborg, Denmark)
PhD student in the McMahon Lab 1999-2003. Supported by a Danish Research Academy Studentship and the Louis Jeantet Foundation. Degree awarded in June 2006.
Investigated the use of DxF motifs in endocytic proteins (see JBC paper 2007)

Mark Chaubey
PhD student in the McMahon Lab:MRC Studentship 2000-2003
Showed that phosphorylation prevents membrane insertion of epsin
Became an health care analyst with Newchurch Ltd.

M. Madan Babu (Mohan) PhD student with Sarah Teichmann from 2001-2004. Moved to a PostDoc position at NCBI, Washington. Madan helped us develop the protein network concept to explain how endocytic proteins work together (EMBO J. 2004 pape). He also wrote our sequence motif search programme. He held an LMB scholarship and a Trinity College studentship and got a Max Perutz prize in 2004 for his work. Currently a group leader at the LMB

Bruno Marks
Second PhD student of the McMahon lab
1996-2000 (MRC studentship)
Became a PostDoc at Dept of Biochemistry,
School of Medical Sciences, Bristol.
Showed the calcium dependence of clathrin mediated endocytosis (Current Biol 1998). Also studied the large GTPase dynamin and proposed the mechanochemical poppase action along with Mike Stowell (article in first issue of Nature Cell Biology 1999 and Nature paper 2001)

David Owen
MRC Postdoctoral Fellow with Phil Evans. Worked closely with us on the structural characterisation of AP2 and AP1 appendage domains and the amphiphysin SH3 domain (see publications). Now a group leader at the CIMR, Cambridge, UK

Patrick Cao: Vacation student June2004-Sept2004

Az Rassaq
Postdoc with Cahir O'Kane, Genetics dept.
Worked with us on Amphiphysin knock-out flies which resulted in a publication showing that amphiphysin was not involved in dynamin recruitment in flies but instead we showed that its function in muscle was in stabilization of the T-tubule network (see Rassaq et al 2001).

Katinka Kohler: Vacation student March1996-Sept1996

Endocytic Team in 2008-2009

Endocytic Team in 2007-2008

Endocytic Team in 2005